Adherence to preventive statin therapy according to socioeconomic position

1 Section of Health Services Research, Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Københavns Universitet2 Department of Public Health, Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Københavns Universitet3 Section of Social Medicine, Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Københavns Universitet4 Section of Biostatistics, Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Københavns Universitet5 Department of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Københavns Universitet6 University of Southern Denmark7 Department of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Københavns Universitet8 Section of Social Medicine, Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Københavns Universitet9 Section of Biostatistics, Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, Københavns Universitet

DOI:

10.1007/s00228-013-1488-6

Abstract:

AIM: To explore whether long-term adherence to preventive statin therapy depends on socioeconomic position (SEP). METHODS: A cohort of individuals without established cardiovascular disease (CVD) or diabetes initiating preventive statin therapy during 2002-2005 was followed in the individual-level Danish registries for 4 years or until censoring events (death, emigration, CVD or diabetes). Only individuals aged 40-84 years for whom information was available on the SEP indicators, education and income were included (N = 76,038). Two different aspects of poor adherence were applied as outcome measures: (1) Proportion of days covered (PDC) with medication below 80 %, assuming a daily dose of one tablet (continuity); (2) Discontinuation defined as a gap between two consecutive prescriptions exceeding 365 days (persistence). Stratum-specific logistic regression analyses were applied to estimate the odds ratio (OR) for PDC